Adverbs...

What is an Adverb?

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man ran quickly). In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the verb that it modifies is in italics.

John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)

Afterwards she smoked a cigarette. (When did she smoke?)

Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)

But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works very well). Look at these examples:

Modify an adjective:

- He is really handsome. (How handsome is he?)

- That was extremely kind of you.

Modify another adverb:

- She drives incredibly slowly. (How slowly does she drive?)

- He drives extremely fast.

     Note that adverbs have other functions, too. They can:

Modify a whole sentence: Obviously, I can't know everything.

Modify a prepositional phrase: It's immediately inside the door.

Adverb Position

When an adverb modifies a verb, there are usually 3 possible positions within the sentence or clause:

1. FRONT - before subject		Now	I will read a book.
2. MID - between subject + verb	I	often	read books.
3. END - after verb/object	I read books	carefully.

When an adverb modifies an adjective or another adverb, it usually goes in front of the word that it modifies, for example:

	adverb	adjective
She gave him a	really	dirty	look.
	adverb	adverb
We	quite	often	study English.

The position of an adverb often depends on the kind of adverb (manner, place, time, degree). The following table gives you some guidelines for placement based on the kind of adverb.

Warning: these are guidelines only, and not complete. There are many exceptions.
kind of adverb		mainly modifies	sentence			usual position
				adverb
manner		verbs	She stroked his hair	gently.		END
place		verbs	He was working	here.		END
time	definite	verbs	He finished the job	yesterday.		END
	frequency		We	often	go to Paris.	MID
degree		verbs, adjectives and adverbs	I	nearly	died.	MID
			It was	terribly	funny.	before adjective
			He works	really	fast.	before adverb